Till a few months ago, India’s middle order looked rock solid in the longest format of cricket. However, with the departure of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, Indian selectors and the team management have been short of ideas as far as their replacements are concerned.However, the solution might already be there in Indias playing XI. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni might look to Delhi batsman Virender Sehwag to anchor a solid role in the middle order rather than using him in his usual role as an opener as India take on New Zealand in the twp-Test series beginning in Hyderabad on Thursday.Sehwag can bring solidity to the middle order if he curbs his natural playing instincts. In fact, Sehwag had himself expressed his desire to bat in the Indian middle order earlier this year.No doubt, Sehwags solid starts have been central to shaping many a wins for Dhoni’s Devils in the longer version. However, the exit of highly dependable Dravid and crisis manager Laxman has left a big hole in India’s batting order.And the onus is on the team management to either plug the gap in the middle with youngsters like Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina or offer Sehwag his much sought after slot at 5 or 6.Dhoni, in his media address ahead of the opening Test against New Zealand, had said that India would miss the two top batsmen, but he also insisted that the youngsters needed to step up to fill the gap.The presence of Mumbai’s Ajinkya Rahane could provide India an opportunity to experiment with the Gautam Gambhir-Rahane combine at the top against the inexperienced Kiwis.advertisementSehwag’s record as an opener stands testament to his prowess with the new ball. However, for a batsman who started off with a debut Test century batting at number six on a hostile Bloemfontein track in South Africa in 2001, one cannot deny Sehwag’s utility as a middle order batsman.While it has been a catch-22 situation for Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher, if the explosive Sehwag can prove his mettle lower down the order against the Kiwis it would certainly lend some much needed strength to India’s batting mix.Moreover, the move could provide India some much-needed dependability and experience in the middle before the more dangerous Englishmen and Aussies come calling.Teams (from):India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane, Subramaniam Badrinath and Piyush Chawla.New Zealand: Ross Taylor (Capt), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Daniel Flynn, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Tarun Nethula, Jeetan Patel, Tim Southee, Kruger van Wyk, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.Match Starts at 9.30 AM IST.read more

Woman at work: Uma Bharati takes the fieldThe story goes that when Uma Bharati wanted a decision taken in a hurry in the Sports Ministry she didn’t pick up the phone. She asked her secretary to list the hierarchy of the minimum number of bureaucrats required to clear a file,Woman at work: Uma Bharati takes the fieldThe story goes that when Uma Bharati wanted a decision taken in a hurry in the Sports Ministry she didn’t pick up the phone. She asked her secretary to list the hierarchy of the minimum number of bureaucrats required to clear a file (five, it turns out), and then summoned the gentlemen concerned to her office.She had them discuss the situation, arrive at a consensus, pass the papers from one to the other in front of her, sign them and be done with the deed. It is not quite governance by the rule book and a little confrontationist, but in the Sports Ministry these days confrontation is the rule.Bharati, Union minister of sports and youth affairs, has had her office designed according to the principles of Vaastu, has books of theology on the shelves and Indian sports officialdom on her mind.Whether it is the mighty suits of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the political animals of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) or the bloated bureaucracy of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), they have all gone toe-to-toe with the honourable minister in the recent past and have the bruises to show for it.It may seem like an incongruous contest: a 42-year-old woman who barely tops 5 ft dressed in distinctly unathletic saffron robes versus the Indian sporting establishment, renowned for its long life and thick skin.But the BCCI is reeling after what boxing judges call a technical knockout, the IOA has won a couple of rounds against Bharati but is being made to huff and puff through the rest, and the SAI has retreated to a neutral corner hoping that she runs out of steam.advertisementUma’s New Rule Book National sports federations have to provide accounts or risk losing their I-T exemptions.The Sports Authority of India is a target of scrutiny over its functioning and expenses.After the Sharjah fracas, the cricket board is being made to wait for an audience.Hockey bosses on the defensive over an India versus Pakistan series planned for Dubai.Afro-Asian Games officials have been asked to give estimates of medal tallies.This is in keeping with Bharati’s image of a “firebrand” politician, a tag she staunchly rejects in favour of a kinder, gentler image – that of a concerned didi to athletes, the folk who drew her close to a field she had no interest in before becoming a minister.”I used to swim and play badminton but never read the sports pages of newspapers. When I talked to athletes, I began to understand more about sports.” If her dealings with the BCCI are any proof, she understands sports administrators far better and her heart does not bleed for them in the slightest.The BCCI’s famous run-in with the ministry came over the question of playing Pakistan in Sharjah and its terribly miscalculated threat not to play in the World Cup and the ICC Mini World Cup unless it received a clarification from the Government.Singularly unimpressed, Bharati retorted that the decision not to play was the board’s own “headache”. Three weeks after the announcement, BCCI officials, headaches and all, are pulling every string in the Government to fix a meeting with Bharati’s office – to explain themselves.They haven’t succeeded. Bharati’s anti-Pakistan stance is now so well documented that Indian Hockey Federation Secretary K. Jothi Kumaran did not even mention a proposed Indo-Pak hockey series in Dubai when he met her recently.The Government does not covet the BCCI’s wealth, she clarifies. “We are happy that the cricket board is rich, but it should use the money for cricket. Sport should be sport, not an industry.”Bharati even had a suggestion for the BCCI: take cricket to areas where there is unrest among the youth who, for lack of diversions, were driven to drugs and terrorism. She stops short of saying that the match-fixers should lead this evangelical drive as a sort of community service, but it wouldn’t be out of place if she did.Bharati switches from plain speech to courtesy with ease and brushes off talk of confrontation with sports officials. “The Government knows it cannot do the work of the federations. But if the federations misuse their autonomy, if they think of it as freedom to do what they like and if they don’t realise what their duties are, then it is not correct,” she says.”If” is a word that has dominated Bharati’s dealings with officials – except it’s not the lofty Kiplingesque “if”. More like an “or else …” Bharati has decided to use the preparation and conduct of the controversial Afro-Asian Games as a platform to scrutinise the working and finances of sporting federations.advertisementAt a recent meeting of federation officials, secretaries were ticked off for the absence of their presidents and presidents asked for prospective medal tallies in their respective sports. The ministry reckoned 18 would be all – no one dared contradict the figure. “Federations have to take responsibility for the results. If you don’t get those results after taking help from the government, then you have to explain,” she says. For the first time, federations (which claim tax exemption and government grants) have been asked to send details of their expenses.”How much of the money collected goes to athletic competitions and how much is spent in administrative costs? Why should our athletes travel in autos while officials travel in air-conditioned cars? If we find any financial irregularity, we will not hesitate to derecognise the federations,” declares Bharati. The word “if” again…After quitting the Lok Sabha last year, Bharati had said she was “not one for team work”. Today, working in the most tangled team situation, she clarifies, “That doesn’t apply to the ministry but to the working in an organisation. In the ministry I accept the existence of the secretary.”A sports official says, “I don’t think she has ever read a government document and has to depend on advice. But she is sharp and very direct. If five people are talking, she can figure out who’s right and who’s wrong.”Bharati may have lit fires under several chairs but the establishment does have a fire-station. An official says, “People like Suresh Kalmadi and Randhir Singh are pros. They have seen 10 governments and 20 ministers. They are entrenched, immune and are hardly going to be worried.”In her second term as sports minister, Bharati says she is “determined” to make “radical” changes. Her pet projects are putting sports on the priority list in the 10th Five Year Plan, setting up sports academies in every state and a complete restructuring of the SAI.Uma Bharati has sent a storm blowing through the Indian sports officialdom but she will be not judged on that alone. She will be judged on whether the storm is a mere billowing of dust which irritates the eye briefly before losing strength or a tempest which will change the country’s sporting landscape.read more

April 30, 2019 Updated: 7:10 PM KUSI Newsroom, San Diego students create play about human trafficking Posted: April 30, 2019 00:00 00:00 spaceplay / pause qunload | stop ffullscreenshift + ←→slower / faster ↑↓volume mmute ←→seek . seek to previous 12… 6 seek to 10%, 20% … 60% XColor SettingsAaAaAaAaTextBackgroundOpacity SettingsTextOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundSemi-TransparentOpaqueTransparentFont SettingsSize||TypeSerif MonospaceSerifSans Serif MonospaceSans SerifCasualCursiveSmallCapsResetSave SettingsSAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Today was the culmination of months of hard work for some students at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts.Teenagers created and produced a play about human trafficking for their peers.Why? Because more and more children are being lured into what’s being described as modern-day slavery.KUSI News Elizabeth Alvarez has the details.It’s called Tapped. A simple yet powerful play put on by students at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts. It’s about a very dark and dangerous crime that is rampant in San Diego.“The Department of Justice and the (San Diego Human Trafficking) Task Force approach us and said ‘we have a need. We’re finding that younger children are being pulled into human trafficking rings.’” Said Roxane Carraso, SCPA Teacher.“They wanted us to help them create a play for awareness, a softer way to explain to younger children how this happens and how to avoid making this happen.”MaeLin Janus, student production lead explains the story is about a girl Sage and a boy named Dylan. “He makes her feel safe then things start getting pretty dark. It goes from Instagram to text messaging to exchanging pictures and they start FaceTiming it gets really involved fast.”Students worked with a professional play right to create a play based on the eight stages of what happens in the human trafficking world.Trapped was created and produced by students for students.It was the vision of the San Diego human trafficking task force.The students involved in the production all went through a seminar to learn about the problem. KUSI Newsroom Categories: Local San Diego News FacebookTwitterread more

The two-wheeler makers Mahindra, Suzuki and Bajaj Auto recorded growth in sales for the month of March, even as the car market in India continues to register decline in sales.For the month of March, the popular Indian two wheeler maker Bajaj Auto sold 3,04,330 as against the 3,01,231 in corresponding month last year, registering an increase of one percent. The companies like Yamaha Motors and Suzuki posted 29 and 19 percent growth in their sales respectively. Yamaha’s March sales zoomed to 46,052 units from 35,782 units last year March and Suzuki sold 30,594 units in March 2014 as against the 25,717 units in March 2013.Other two wheeler maker who recorded growth in sales for the month of March is Mahindra. The company registered 152 percent growth in March, selling 19,591 units. “We have received a good response from the market for all our products. The growing customer satisfaction has led to positive word-of-mouth in the market. Building on the existing goodwill in the market, we expect that the 4 products launched at the Auto Expo – Gixxer, Let’s, V Strom and Inazuma will also show good performance in the upcoming fiscal. We will continue to give the best to our customers,” Motoroids quoted Atul Gupta, Executive Vice President, SMIL.Meanwhile, for the fiscal 2014 (Fy 14), the auto market in the country ended on low note. The car makers in India posted a decline of 4.4 percent for 2013-14.The car manufacturers like Ford, Honda and Nissan are the few players in the domestic who witnessed growth in sales in the last month. While Honda posted highest ever monthly sales in March 2014, recording 83.4 percent increase in its domestic sales at 18,426 units. Japanese car maker Nissan recorded over three fold increase in its sales (Edited by Anu James)read more

Kolkata: Acclaimed Bengali writer Ramapada Chowdhury, whose story Abhimanyu was made into a Hindi movie Ek doctor ki maut, died at a city hospital on Sunday, his family said. He was 95 and has left behind his wife and two daughters.He was admitted to the hospital on July 21 with old age ailments including lung problem. He died of cardiac arrest at 6:30 pm, a spokesman of the hospital said.Abhimanyu was based on the life and work of Dr. Subhas Mukhopadhyay who created India’s first and the world’s second test-tube baby in 1978. Director Tapan Sinha turned the story into a award winning Hindi film Ek doctor ki maut in 1990. Mrinal Sen’s Hindi film Ek din achanak (1989) was also based on Chowdhury’s story Beej. Also Read – Rain batters Kolkata, cripples normal lifeChowdhury had penned famous literary works such as Pratham Prahar (1954), Banpalashir padabali (1960), Ekhoni (1969), Kharij, Bari badle jay (1988), Abhimanyu (1982). He was conferred the Sahitya Academy award for Bari badle jay in 1988.Born on December 28, 1922 at Kharagpur, Chowdhury’s most active years were between 1950s and ’80s. His last book, Harano Khata was published in 2015.Many of his works had also been made into critically acclaimed Bengali films. He was also the recipient ofRabindra Puraskar, Ananda Puraskar and Rabindranath Tagore Memorial International Prize.read more

It’s not only women who need skincare products to maintain their skin and avoid future problems such as wrinkles, acne and roughness, men too need the right treatment for their skin. Using organic face oils and under eye creams can do the trick.Experts talk about the importance of men’s skin care:4Men’s skin is generally oilier than that of majority of women which leads to acne issues. Hence, using face gels helps to prevent the same and is highly recommended. Facial gels also help you avoid pigmentation and blemishes. Also Read – Add new books to your shelf4Men’s skin has a tougher tone and dark patches as they shave regularly. Just using an after shave is not enough. Again, using a simple facial gel or organic face oils post a shave is highly recommended. 4Men with their their stressful work regime are prone to puffy eyes and eye bags that can be cured by under eye creams made specifically for their harsh skin. 4It is a known fact that their skin tans easily as compared to women and hence using day creams with SPF is a must for men on a daily basis. This is not a cosmetic procedure but simply a health measure for the skin. 4 Men’s skin needs hydration too. Skin dehydration is a major problem that leads to breakouts and dry patches. Hydrating sheet masks are the solution to this common issue. Using sheet masks may sound feminine but are made for men too. These are an important night routine to let the skin breath and avoid dryness.read more

Share By: The Associated Press ORLANDO — There’s a new salvo in Orlando’s theme park wars.Universal Orlando Resort has announced that it is building a fourth theme park to be called Universal’s Epic Universe.Featuring an entertainment centre, hotels, shops, restaurants and more, the park will be located within a larger 750-acre site that nearly doubles Universal’s total available acreage in Central Florida. Its specific location will be just a few miles from the existing resort in Southwest Orange County, south of Sand Lake Road and east of Universal Boulevard.An opening date has yet to be revealed.The announcement was made Thursday at an event attended by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, and Universal executives Tom Williams and Brian Roberts.“Our new park represents the single-largest investment Comcast NBCUniversal has made in its theme park business and in Florida overall,” said Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation. “It reflects the tremendous excitement we have for the future of our theme park business and for our entire company’s future in Florida.”More news: Air Canada’s global sales update includes Managing Director, Canada & USA SalesWilliams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Universal Parks & Resorts, added: “Our vision for Epic Universe is historic. It will build on everything we have done and become the most immersive and innovative theme park we have ever created. It is an investment in our business, our industry, our team members and our community.”Mayor Demings spotlighted Universal’s role in the Kirkman Road extension, a 50/50 public-private project that when finished will add a 1.7-mile, north-south artery between Carrier Drive on the north to Universal Boulevard on the south. Universal is investing US$160 million to extend Kirkman into the area where the new park will be located.“The investment Universal is making in our community and the benefit all of us will see is substantial,” said Demings. “This will benefit nearly every segment of our economy, from tourism to high-tech.”Demings added that the Kirkman extension will improve transportation and open up the entire area for additional development, including an important expansion of the Convention Center.More news: Consolidation in the cruise industry as PONANT set to acquire Paul Gauguin CruisesConstruction of the new park alone will contribute a total of $11.5 billion in direct and indirect economic benefit into the Florida economy. Universal Orlando currently employs 25,000 people and will hire an additional 14,000 team members as part of Epic Universe.Universal already operates Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, as well as the Volcano Bay water park, in Orlando. The company recently has been acquiring hundreds of acres of land near Orlando’s convention centre.Universal’s announcement comes weeks ahead of the planned opening of a Star Wars land at rival Walt Disney World. An identical land opened earlier this summer at sister park Disneyland in California.Earlier this summer, Universal also debuted a new ride based on the Harry Potter property, which had fans waiting for hours to ride it.More details about Epic Universe will be revealed over time. << Previous PostNext Post >> Thursday, August 1, 2019 Tags: Orlando, Theme Parks & Attractions It’s coming: Universal confirms fourth new theme parkread more

Share CONTACT: Mike Cinelli PHONE: (713)831-4794E-MAIL: mcinelli@rice.edu KING’S DAUGHTER TO ‘SPEND AN EVENING’ AT RICEUNIVERSITY“An Evening with the Rev. BerniceKing,” set for Jan. 19, is a fitting tribute for the Martin Luther King MemorialLecture, the fourth in this year’s President’s Lecture Series at RiceUniversity.The lecture will begin at 8 p.m. in Rice Memorial Center’sGrand Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Seating will begin at 7p.m.The youngest child of Coretta Scott King and the late MartinLuther King Jr., King first exercised her oratorical gift and heard her callingto the cloth at age 17. She addressed the United Nations on apartheid in 1980and became an ordained minister 10 years later.She presently serves as assistant pastor at Greater Rising StarBaptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., where she oversees youth and women’s ministries.Though she was only 5 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. died, Bernice isoften compared to her late father. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Spelman College and amaster of divinity and doctorate of law from Emory University. King alsoreceived an honorary doctor of divinity from Wesley College.Rice University is a leading American researchuniversity–small, private, and highly selective–distinguished by its superiorteaching, commitment to undergraduate education, outstanding graduate andprofessional programs, residential college system, collaborative andinterdisciplinary culture, and global perspective.### AddThisread more